Someone We Know

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They all sit. The sound of the chairs scraping against the floor rips at Raleigh's raw nerves like nails on a chalkboard. Forget about solving all these crimes; the signal triumph here is (spoiler) the heroine’s survival.

In a quiet, leafy suburb in upstate New York, a teenager has been sneaking into houses--and into the owners' computers as well--learning their secrets, and maybe sharing some of them, too.He knows he can't get out of this by denying it. He's caught like a rat in a trap, and now all he can do is damage control. "I did sneak into somebody's house, but I wasn't stealing. It was more like-just looking around," he mutters. Lapena has written a great whodunit, with a delicious Christie-like vibe. Fans of the author’s first novel will want this, and anyone who savors a well-crafted murder mystery will gobble it up!” This compelling and realistic modern take on the country-house mystery will gain new fans for the author and is definitely one to hand to devotees of Agatha Christie (and her modern interpreter, Sophie Hannah).” Shari Lapena.... I love this book ❤️ Once I got started I struggled to put it down and would have read it in one sitting if I could. I have read books from the author before so I knew it would be good but I think this one is my favourite so far. There is so much going on all the time and getting to the end of each chapter you just want to keep going.

Exactly what I love in a book: a small cast, an intricate plot worthy of Agatha Christie, with characters who stay in my mind long after the novel has finished. As for her writing – it was just perfect, as though Anne Tyler had written a thriller. No greater compliment can be given! Mary Torjussen AS USUAL TOO MANY UNLIKABLE CHARACTERS: Of course I’m not quiet fan of cheaters, liars, fake friends, noisy neighbors who were watching (mostly stalking) the other houses’ inhabitants. Don’t forget Carmine Torres who threatens everyone just show them how smart and good detective she is. Lapena keeps the well-developed twists churning, with each a surprise notch in this ever-evolving plot, and she continues this skillful storytelling until the stunning twist at the end . . . memorable.” Pros: very straightforward writing – absolutely no bells, no whistles, this is prose in its most simplistic form. Bingeable read, despite it being predictable I was still interested in how everything would unfold, not OTT, good endingDo you think the relationship between Olivia and Glenda is one of true friendship or something more layered? Can you be a true friend to someone who is hiding a big secret? A Missing woman and Anonymous letters about someone breaking and entering has the whole neighborhood on edge. The setting is mainly confined to one street in a small suburb in upstate New York, a place the reader would never want to live. How will the woman react when they discover that their husbands are suspected by the police of having affairs with the murdered woman and of killing her? Soon another woman is found dead, strangled in her home. Who is he, and what might he have uncovered? After two anonymous letters are received, whispers start to circulate, and suspicion mounts. And when a woman down the street is found murdered, the tension reaches the breaking point. Who killed her? Who knows more than they're telling? And how far will all these very nice people go to protect their own secrets?

This is a very difficult letter to write. I hope you will not hate us too much. . . My son broke into your home recently while you were out." All the husbands had watched her, practically drooling, stumbling over one another to hand her things" while the wives looked on trying not to appear annoyed. It was at the last communal barbecue, about a year ago, that new arrival Amanda Pierce - a gorgeous young brunette with long tan legs - caught everyone's eye. It was inspired by something I saw on the internet about a kid breaking into someone’s house in the middle of the night to use their wi-fi. I guess he’d had his own wi-fi restricted at home. It got me thinking about what a teenage boy might do, and what the repercussions might be. I knew the boy had to stumble onto something big—I needed a murder. It’s always easy to come up with a dead body—it’s how that dead body got to be there that’s more difficult, and a lot more interesting. That’s where the story comes in. In many ways, Someone We Know is similar to my other thrillers—it’s fast paced, it’s twisty, and you want to get to the bottom of it all. But this one also focuses on whole families, on parents and sons in particular, rather than focusing only on couples. It feels richer and deeper to me in that way. The book has a claustrophobic feel since Aylesford is small and there are a limited number of people who might be the murderer. Thus the armchair detective has a pretty good chance of closing in on 'who done it.'

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What is your process for developing characters? Are any of these characters based on anyone you know? Someone We Know is a tour de force of thriller writing. Shari Lapeña proves yet again that she is the mistress of the pacy plot, cliff edge tension and menacing suburban claustrophobia. Fans will be delighted and if you haven’t read her books yet, then why on earth not? Thrillers love to ask the question How well do we ever really know anybody? Do you think people in real life harbor as many secrets as they do in fiction? How far do you think fiction strays from real life? Do you think truth is actually stranger than fiction? Discuss.